Influence of Abrasive Waterjet Machining Parameters on the Surface Texture Quality of Carrara Marble

Abstract

Abrasive waterjet (AWJ) cutting technology has been used extensively for the cutting and processing of almost all engineering materials because of its precise cutting technique and the lack of damage caused. Currently, the use of abrasive waterjet cutting in the natural stone industry is increasing. However, the effectiveness of abrasive waterjet cutting of natural stones is dependent on the rock properties and machine operating parameters. Consequently, this paper presents the influence of abrasive waterjet machining parameters on the surface texture quality of Carrara marble. The results have shown that the abrasive waterjet cutting process offers better cut surface texture quality of Car-rara marble under certain parameter conditions as well as being more environmentally friendly. The stand-off distance shows the opposite effect on both surface roughness and waviness. With a view to reducing the machining costs, every user tries to select the traverse rate of the cutting head to be as high as possible, but results show that increasing the traverse rate always causes a corresponding increase in terms of inaccuracy, surface roughness, R a ≈ 93.7 µm, and waviness, W a ≈ 92.6 µm. The abrasive mass flow rate is not a significant parameter during the cutting process. In all investigations, it was found that the machined surface of the marble is smoother near the jet entrance , R a ≈ 4 µm, and waviness, W a ≈ 5 µm, and increasingly becomes rougher towards the jet exit. The result also shows that the micro-hardness value of the Carrara marble was in the range of 122 HV to 124 HV.